Return to Area 49B
by Dark Inu Fan
Summary: "Claire." Jim finally sat down at the table, taking her hand and kissing it. It was an action meant to reassure her, but it was acting better as an anchor for Jim. "I talked to Darci. Her aunt was visiting and Toby cut their date short and left. That was the last anyone saw him, that we know of. Her aunt's name is Amanda." He shuddered. "Kubritz." pt5 selkie au


**Please, for the love of all that is ****_holy, please go back and read at least the first three chapters _****of Idir Muir so that you're not lost.** That being said, enjoy as I torture our poor dragon-boy.

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Jim paced his den, staring down at his phone, checking his text messages. "Master Jim?"

"Have you heard anything from Toby in the past couple of days?"

"...Not that I was aware of. Was he supposed to contact me? I was not informed of this."

"No, no, it's not that." Jim shot off another message before reluctantly stuffing his phone into the back pocket of his jeans and looking up at his foster father. "It's just that Tobes didn't call for our nightly chat yesterday, and today he's not answering his phone. I thought that he'd just be busy, but I haven't heard a single thing out of him in two days." Blinky nodded, getting some idea of his concern. The only person that Jim called just as frequently as his mother, was Tobias. Even with an entire continent dividing them, they still kept in contact by texting several times a day, and calling at least once every other day. Sometimes directly after he talked to his mother, and sometimes at the same time in a group video message, which included Strickler and Aaarrrgghh as well.

"What was the last thing that you talked about, then? Anything unusual that would make it that Tobias wouldn't stay in contact. Or possibly he misplaced his phone once again. If I recall, he does have the poorest luck concerning the devices."

"Just that he was going on a date with Darci after our last call, and that he might hang out with Eli and Krel after. Nothing that would stop him from responding." Getting an idea, Jim sent off two texts, getting responses in minutes. Reading them, Jim's face fell.

"Master Jim?"

"Tobes never made it over to Eli's. Apparently, they're putting together plans for another movie, so he wouldn't miss that. And Krel hasn't seen him in a week, though apparently he's been off-planet for the past couple of days, so there's that excuse."

"Have you tried Miss Darci, I believe you said, the one that was supposed to go on this 'date' with Tobias the other night."

"Oh, yeah. I should probably ask her too." Luckily, some time back, The trio had exchanged all their contact information in Arcadia, and with a friend like Mary, he had nearly all the numbers of the kids in Arcadia. "Hey, Darci, it's Jim. Have you… uh, heard anything from Tobes lately?"

What he did not expect, was a hitch to Darci's voice as she responded with a negative. "I'm so, so sorry, Jim, but I haven't seen him since our date ended. My aunt was visiting when we got back to my place after dinner and Toby started getting all weird, making excuses about wanting to leave. Right before that, we had been talking about getting a snack and watching the latest Mythic Maze movie. I think my aunt freaked him out or something, because he refused to come inside once he saw her. I thought that he would have gone straight home, since he said that he was feeling sick."

"Yeah, I, uh. Guess that might be it then." Jim had his suspicions, but didn't want to say anything. He trusted Toby's instincts, and if he needed to stay away from Darci's aunt, then the woman was one to be cautious about. "He must have been passed out or something and didn't hear his phone. Hey, Darce, just out of curiosity, what is your aunt's name?"

"Amanda Kubritz, why?"

"Ah…" Jim said weakly, sinking into a crouch unaware. "No reason. I was just wondering if it was someone that I knew that would get Tobes so freaked out. I guess he just remembered something important then. Nothing to worry over." His voice, despite trying to be casual, was about an octave higher than usual.

"Ye-ah, that sounds fake, but ok." Darci didn't sound like she believed him, but had learned not to ask unless she wanted to get involved with the weirdness that seemed to follow those three around like a bad stink. "Think you could tell Toby that it's his turn for dinner when you talk to him next. And that the taco truck doesn't count. You talk to him more than I do, and _I'm _the one dating him!"

"Yeah, I'll pass on the message. Stay safe, okay Darci?"

"I'm better at staying out of it than Toby, Claire-bear and you are, so I'm not that worried."

"Ok. Good. Night Darce."

"Night." Hanging up the phone and putting it in his pocket. Jim tucked himself into a ball and just let himself breathe for a moment. It was no use getting himself worked up over a few missed texts. Toby was safe. He knew how to stay out of danger, and if not, he had Aaarrrgghh there to protect him.

Wait a minute! Aaarrrgghh would be able to tell him where Toby was. Propping his phone up on the nearest surface, Jim hit video chat to Aaarrrgghh's tablet and stepped back enough to have his whole upper body in frame. Even being an emergency, Jim was helping Toby teach ASL to Aaarrrgghh as a tool to communicate clearer, and every chance to practice was important. It took a minute, but Aaarrrgghh picked up with a grin, but a hint of worry in his eyes. "Hey, Aaarrrgghh, is Toby with you?" Jim spoke and signed at the same time, using Aaarrrgghh's name sign of the letter R and the number three and Toby's sign of dragon.

Shaking his head, Aaarrrgghh both signed and spoke, "No. worried. Missing two nights." Jim nodded, taking a moment to clearly sign what Aaarrrgghh was trying to say while Jim thought ahead.

"Ok." Jim worried his hands, a bad habit that he seemed to pick up only when he was signing, though he caught himself doing it at other times when his hands weren't busy as well. "Thank you, Aaarrrgghh. If you do see him, please tell him to call me. And if you can, can you ask around to see if anyone else has seen him lately. From what I can tell, Darci saw him last, but he was supposed to hang out with Eli and Krel earlier. Neither of them have seen him either."

Aaarrrgghh nodded in agreement, "Look for wingman. Ask Barbara and Nana too."

Jim bit his lip. On one hand, the responsible thing to do would to report that he suspected that Toby was missing to Nana, but on the other hand , he didn't want to risk stressing her out by bringing it to her attention. If she wasn't aware of Toby missing already, it wouldn't do much good to tell her, just for Jim to be overreacting to some missed texts. In the end, "Tell mom. She can see if she can file a missing report and ask around a bit easier than you can. I'm probably worried over nothing, but Mom and maybe Strickler can help you look in the meanwhile."

Agreeing, the two signed off and Jim finally tucked his phone away, absently rubbing his left shoulder joint. He didn't know if it was the stress, anxiety or some other symptom, but it was strange that his shoulder was flaring with pain, along with a headache that had bloomed in the back of his head at about the same time. He didn't remember injuring himself lately, and it felt more like a ghost pain, an echo of what it should have been if he had done it himself. That, compounding with his stress, was making him worry when he couldn't do much to help. Besides, Toby probably lost track of time and his phone. It was no big deal and he was stressing himself out for no good reason.

Still…

"I'm going to find Claire."

"Master Jim?"

"I promised her that the next time that I was going to do any spellwork, that I would let her watch."

"Master Jim, you are being paranoid. And that is saying quite a lot coming from me, so maybe you should calm down and think for a moment before taking any rash actions."

"Yeah." Jim fingered the red/black scale bracelet on his left wrist absently. "Except that you also told me to follow my instincts. And my instincts are telling me that Toby is in pain." His hand traced up from the bracelet, to his shoulder and gripped it as if to emphasize what he felt.

"And just what kind of spell were you planning on doing then?" Blinky followed Jim as he wandered out to the market, ducking into several stalls, apparently on the search for something specific, as well as a specific somebody.

"Just a simple scrying spell." Blinky balked, watching as Jim picked up a bowl, inspecting its shininess before shaking his head and putting it back down with an apologetic look to the stall owner.

"Simple, he says." Blinky muttered, watching Jim next inspect a crystal bowl. "Not all problems have a magical solution, Master Jim. What about this… phone tracking that you've told me about before."

Jim blinked, straightened up and looked at his mentor with wide eyes. "That… could work." Pulling out his phone once again, Jim called Krel. Surely he would be able to easily track Toby… as long as he had his phone on him.

"This is D-d-DJ Klee-b-b" the Akoridian's voice echoed slightly in a 'cool' way, "You know what to do." And instead of a beep like earth answering machines, it was a chime.

"Mother, it's Jim." Toby had told him all about the AI called Mother, and hopefully, the opposite was true as well. "It's an emergency. I need to talk to Kre-"

"Hey, Jim. You know that you need to text first." Krel's voice cut in, sounded distracted, but at least he had picked up.

"Ah," Jim sucked in a breath, "Sorry. I forgot, and Tobes warned me too. Still, this is an emergency. Can you track down Tobes' phone for me?"

"Can I track down Toby's phone?" Krel no longer sounded distracted, but scoffed instead. "Can a Soolian eat Flexel?"

"...I take that as a yes…?"

"Ay, just give me a meckron… and, no. I can't."

"What do you mean, you can't?" Jim ignored the crack in his voice.

"I mean," and there was that condescending voice again. "That Toby's phone is probably crushed at this point. You humans and your fragile communication devices. He probably dropped the thing again and needs to go buy a new one.

"Would you be able to track it if it was turned off?" Jim held onto that last thread of hope.

"Do I look like an _idiot_ to you? Of course I would. If it was turned off, it still lets out a signal. No device, no signal,"

"Right. Thanks again. Can you keep an eye out for him anyway, just in case. I'm worried about him."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll keep an eye out for him. Now go away, I have other things to do. And text first next time!"

"Yeah, I'll remember next time. And Krel, thanks, again." Hanging up, Jim looked at his mentor and gave a tight smile, shaking his head.

Pursing his lips, Blinky slowly nodded his consent to the scrying spell, putting his hands on his hips so he wouldn't worry them. "What do we need for the spell, Master Jim."

"A container with a mirror-finish surface, or a clear bowl, and a map. Clean water, and a clear quartz crystal- as pure as you can find- that's small enough to be easily carried around. I have everything else in my kitchen."

"Alright. I know where to find a variety of quartz samples."

"And if you see Claire-"

"I will send her to your den, Master Jim."

Jim smiled a soft, grateful smile. "Thanks, Blink."

"We will find Tobias, Master Jim. Not to worry." Blinky gave a reassuring smile back, cradling the back of Jim's head and pressing their horns together in a comforting gesture. "You _will _have your mate back."

Sputtering, Jim pulled back and Blinky let him go with a knowing smile and a pat to his shoulder.

Going from stall to stall, he eventually found Claire at one, talking with the owner about her wares. "Claire." He stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "I was looking for you." He mumbled into her hair.

After that first startled squeak, Claire leaned into her boyfriend's embrace, but finished her conversation with the stall owner. Eventually, she looked up and pulled Jim down for a short peck. "For anything in particular?"

Jim nodded, snuffling her hair before giving a kiss to the crown of her head. "You wanted to be there the next time I did some magic."

"Oh?" Claire perked up, turning in his embrace and looping her own arms around him. "What kind of magic?" She didn't pull away, sensing that Jim just needed to hold her for the time being.

"A scrying spell. And this'll actually be perfect." Jim reached over and tapped on a plate-sized crystal dish sitting on one of the shelves before turning to the vendor. "How much?"

"For you, Trollhunter, free, if you just need to borrow it. I was actually talking to your mate here about setting up a trade system for getting some much-needed supplies from the surface world."

Jim nodded. "That's a good idea. Yeah. I'll get this back to you by tomorrow. Thank you…"

"Kilfred, Master Jim."

"Kilfred." Taking the dish with a thankful nod, he guided Claire back toward his den.

"What, or who, are you scrying for?" Claire asked, letting herself be led.

"Tobes." He was carefully looking anywhere except at the sorceress-in-training. "Nobody's seen him for two days and I have a bad feeling. We, and I mean Prince Krel, already tried to track his phone, but its not sending out any signals." Jim brushed aside the embroidered curtain that served as his front door and escorted Claire into the kitchen, where Blinky was already waiting. A crystal sat on the countertop, pristine as glass and about the size of Claire's thumb. "I already talked to everyone Toby would have talked to in Arcadia."

Setting up a pot with water and setting it to boil, Jim pulled out a handful of things from both his 'cooking' and 'potions' cabinets and set them on the table between Claire and Blinky. "Did you bring a map, Blink?"

"Right here, master Jim." Blinky pulled out the old map that they had used to cross the country, with old troll tunnels and cave systems recently updated on it. Sure, it wasn't like the usual political maps that the kids were used to, but it would work for what he needed.

"Good." Jim pulled out a couple of fresh tea candles, an incense stick from a blue-purple baggie, and some string and set them on the table as well. "I'll try not to get wax on it, but I make no promises." Jim stated, walking around his kitchen island to toss a large pinch of salt into the water.

"Claire." Jim finally sat down at the table, angling his chair toward her and taking her hand, kissing it. It was an action meant to reassure her, but it was acting better as an anchor for Jim. "I talked to Darci. Her aunt was visiting and Toby cut their date short and left. That was the last anyone saw him, that we know of. Her aunt's name is Amanda." He shuddered. "Kubritz."

"As in…"

"Yes."

"I thought she was…"

"That's what Tobes told us. Apparently he was wrong."

"Do you think she- like with the Akiridians and that lightening guy?"

Jim sighed, bending over and putting his forehead on their clasped hands, absently kissing her knuckles before putting his head back down. "Gods, I hope not."

"Jim…" She wanted to cry, but one of them had to be strong. Instead she stroked his hair and scruff, detangling it with her fingers while Jim tried to gather himself back together. "We'll find him." He nodded. "We'll bring him home."

"I love you." Jim whispered.

"I love you too." She stroked his horns before using one to tilt his face up to meet her eyes. "Now show me some magic."

"Right." Jim nodded, standing up and kissing Claire's forehead. "I need you two to clear off the table and lay down the map. The bowl goes in the middle, with the candles at true north, southeast and southwest in a triangle. Tie a good length of string to the crystal so that it won't slip off and put that in the bowl. And Claire…" Here, he stuttered before taking a calming breath and holding out his left arm. "I need you to untie my bracelet and take off one of the scales."

Claire looked up in shock before catching herself. "Right, yeah, that makes sense. Isn't a rule that you need something that belongs to the person to make a tracking spell work?" She asked herself, getting a wry grin in response from Jim.

"Pop culture got that mostly right, at least. It has to be a body part. Mostly hair or nail clippings, but in this case, one of Tobe's shed scales will work fantastically. Especially since I'm doing a two-part spell, here."

"Oh, is that why you always burn your shed hair and scatter the filings when we do mani-pedi-horn nights." Jim blushed at Claire bringing that up in front of his foster father, but nodded nonetheless.

"You can do a lot of things with shed body parts, beyond locating the owner." Blinky spoke up. "So that is a smart practice to make it more difficult to attain pieces of yourself. Tobias shows great faith and trust, leaving a part of his very being in Master Jim's care. I am not quite sure if it has the same connotations in Fae culture, but to give a piece of yourself in troll culture is to lay your very life in their hands. It speaks of a shared future and has implications of the promise of future children together. Dear Aaarrrgghh and I exchanged stones some twenty or so years ago in a beautiful but small ceremony that Kanjigar officiated."

"Wait, you're married?" Jim asked, nearly dropping a hibiscus flower with the spike of guilt that hit him suddenly.

"Yes, and we have three beautiful children, though we were not planning on even starting to attempt for another century yet. But these things happen." Claire blushed, getting the implications, but Jim sputtered, intending to try to apologize for pulling Blinky away from his mate and ask why he had never seen any children around the two of them. Patting Jim on both shoulders, then giving them a squeeze, Blinky grinned. "Now, let's go get our youngest back."

Understanding slowly crossed Jim's face and he gave a firm nod, shaking a few cloves into the small dish that held the herbs he was using. "Actually," Claire went over to carefully unpick the bracelet's knots with her small human fingers, "Toby is the oldest between the three of us, by nearly a year. Jim is the youngest."

Said youngest's response was to stick out his tongue.

"Fascinating. I wasn't aware, since Tobias refuses to tell me his birthing day date. And Master Jim has, should we say, a complicated relation with his own birthing day, I did not think it prudent to ask." Silencing as a thought crossed his mind, Blinky blinked as he stared into the middle distance. "Speaking of, Fair Claire, when _is_ your birthing day? It has been over a year since you joined us, after all, and we have not celebrated as far as I am aware."

"Hmm…?" She was working on a knot that refused to budge. "Oh, it was over the summer. It was the night that Jim caught that huge rabbit and made stew for us to share. It was very sweet, especially since I didn't really want to do anything since we were on the move."

"We will have to have a proper celebration this coming summer, then." Blinky insisted, to which Claire shrugged.

"You really don't have to. Beyond my Quince, it was usually Papa that took me out to dinner since mom was usually working."

"Ah." Blinky decided to tactfully stay away from that. "And Tobias, when is his?"

"About two weeks before Jim's. I asked Barbara once." Claire spoke up when Jim didn't.

"That's when Nana brought him home." Jim winced. "We don't know when his birthday actually is, since his paperwork was lost in the system. Something between the Fae and the human adoption systems never quite… line up."

"I thought he went straight to his grandmother after his parents passed?"

Jim winced and started throwing in ingredients to the pot to distract himself. "Tobe's parents died when he was two. He was in the system until someone found Nana's information and contacted her. She's a Fae foster parent, and Tobes was being bounced between human caretakers. Nana was Uncle Ralph's foster mother, apparently, and technically isn't allowed to keep any more foster kids since she retired in the human system, so they weren't able to track her down immediately. It was an all-around ugly situation until we struck a deal to let Tobes stay." The orange wedge he threw into the pot splashed onto the countertop, thankfully not burning Claire in the process, but Jim stepped back either way, focusing on his breathing before his growl got even worse.

"Oh." Claire moved in and hugged Jim's arm briefly before going back to work on the knots (she only had two more to go!). "Three for three, we all have birthdays that kinda suck, don't we?"

Letting out a startled laugh, Jim nodded. It wasn't really that funny, but he needed the release in tension. "Yes, I guess we do."

With all the ingredients simmering away in the pot, all they were waiting on was the scale. "So, the scrying spell. It's a relatively simple one, so we don't have to worry about portions or any exterior forces, though something like this _is _stronger on a full moon… like a good majority of non-combative spells, really." Jim started teaching in a soft voice. "This is a good basic spell for water-elemental based magics, as well as light/shadow and mind magics. Fire magic has its own variety, but Earth and Air-based magics tend to have difficulties with it."

Finally able to get the last knot undone, Clare carefully unthreaded one scale and handed it to Jim with an air of grave importance. "I think NotEnrique showed me a version of a scrying spell to see Enrique while he was still in the darklands."

Tilting his head, Jim nodded. It made sense, after all. "They're connected, so it would make it pretty simple to scry along the familiar-changeling bond. What did he do?"

"He hocked a loogie onto my mirror and rubbed it in." Claire was… still not impressed that she had to clean troll phlegm out of the crevices in the frame.

"... Yeah. That'd do it." Jim nodded his head. "This way's a bit… cleaner. More hygenic? Of practically the same spell. I mean, we could use a mirror if I just wanted a window, but I'm doing a two-parter here and need the bowl." Taking the pot off the burner, Jim absently grabbed a tea strainer as he passed the sideboard. "Blink, can you light the candles, please?" His foster trainer did as asked as he held the pot, unphased by the hot metal of the handle.

"Now, you remember in Harry Potter, when they had that potions class in first year? They had to remove the potion from the fire before adding the porcupine quills. Well…" Jim held the pot well away from the table and the others before dramatically dropping the scale into potion. Immediately, it threw off multi-colored sparks and smoked, kicking up a fuss for a good thirty seconds before calming once again. "Dragon scales are a powerful fire magic element. Just imagine if that was still on the heat." Moving back to the table, Jim picked up his strainer and hovered it over the crystal bowl, making sure that the piece of quartz was settled in it before he started to pour. "Something like hair or nail clippings doesn't have _near_ that much of a reaction." Jim added in an aside.

"Do you remember that rule about Beetlejuice, or Bloody Mary?" Jim asked, sitting down on the south side of the bowl, lighting the incense stick on one of the candles and waving it over the water, peering inside. The string tied to the crystal looked like it was just floating there, the quartz itself having completely disappeared. The smoke laid on the water, making it look like fog on a lake, not dissipating like normal smoke would. "It's the same thing here. This is the power of knowing someone's true name." Jim hovered his hand over the bowl before snatching it back momentarily. "I trust you two won't share his full name with _anyone_, even joking around. A name is almost as valuable as having a physical piece of yourself. If _anyone ever_ asks for your name, do not give it to them. Tell them what they are allowed to call you instead. Certain fae will take being polite as being given your name as a gift to do what they want with it. What would be even better would to give them a nickname to call you by."

Claire frowned in thought, trying to understand what the difference was. Didn't everyone already know her name. "I… don't get it."

"Here, let me show you." Nodding, Jim stood up, standing like a prince with one hand behind his back and the other held out. "Fair Maiden, would you give me your name?" He asked, dipping forward slightly in a bow. Flustered, she held out her own hand, caught off guard by the voice that he had only used as Romeo. He caught her hand and pulled it forward in a light kiss to her knuckles.

"Claire Maria Nuñez." She… wasn't sure why she had said her full name.

"Aha!" Jim gave her a manic grin and, using her captured hand, spun her into a dip and licked the stretch of neck under her ear, making her squeal. "And now you belong to me~." Standing her up, Jim made sure Claire had her own feet again before he stepped back into a respectful distance. "Next time, if something like that ever happens." His voice was back to normal. "Say 'No, but you may call me-." He gestured with his hand for her to fill in whatever name she liked. "It's a way to work around the compulsion charm you felt. They would still know your name, but they would not own it that way."

"O-oh." Frankly, Claire was a little breathless (and a lot turned on) from the whiplash of Jim's actions. He played the charming prince and the dashing villain spectacularly.

"I dare say, Master Jim," Blinky chuckled, also taken aback by Jim's actions, "That Fair Claire will not forget that particular lesson at any time soon." Nodding in agreement, Jim helped Claire to her chair before retaking his.

Taking a steadying breath, Jim's eyes fell to half-mast as he held his hand over the bowl. Concentrating on gathering power and pushing it into the potion, Jim invoked his dragon's name "**Tobias Ingermann Domzalski. Tobias Ingermann Domzalski. Tobias Ingermann Domzalski.**" On the third recitation, the water stopped reflecting the candles surrounding the bowl and the light crystal overhead, the smoke swirling with its own inner light. When it stopped, It showed a dragon about the size of a horse, thrashing about wide-eyed and baring its teeth. While they watched, the dragon lunged at one of the yellow-suited beings, warning them back. In response, the yellow-suited beings that weren't attacked lunged with spears with taser tips, shocking it. The worst part, is there was no sound while they watched. There was no roar or scream from the dragon, no zap of electricity or voices from the yellow-suit.

"Is that Toby?" Claire whispered in shock. Daring a glance up, Jim saw Blinky's pupils contracted to six tiny little dots, his stone skin paling to unhealthy levels.

"Yes." Jim stated simply, waving his hand over the bowl to clear it. "**Cloch sáite go bunúsach, taispeáin dom cá gcónaíonn do úinéir.** Stone steeped in essence, show me where your owner resides." The pink potion cleared like the smoke, absorbed by the quartz, and leaving clear water behind. Picking up the string, Jim swung it in a large circle, encompassing the map, as the circles grew smaller, it focused first in the western states, then the southwest, smaller, until. "...Shit." Jim breathed a sigh. He could tell by the yellow-suited figures torturing his mate, but he still had needed the confirmation.


End file.
